


The Handmaid's Tale, Season 3, Episode 9, Heroic

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e09 Heroic, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:30:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20316313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and other parts of the series. Complete.





	The Handmaid's Tale, Season 3, Episode 9, Heroic

**Author's Note:**

> I made a mistake in transcribing a character's dialogue and have now edited to correct this.

I’ve been assuming the title referred to heroic measures wherein treatment or course of therapy is one possessing a high risk of causing further damage to a patient's health but is undertaken as a last resort with the understanding that any lesser treatment will result in failure, but I could be wrong.

One thing I really liked about the first season was it was made explicit June was an unreliable narrator.

It’s important to note that unreliable narrators aren’t always untrustworthy; a character can be sane, honest, and be relatively observant of the world around them, but they will still have biases, make assumptions, and simply be wrong about certain things. Other unreliable narrators are either malicious or, at least, have a clear agenda in distorting what’s going on, and others still are somehow mentally compromised: A child hasn’t reached psychological and intellectual maturity, an overly-sheltered person often won’t see the reality of certain things clearly, a person struggling with certain mental health issues won’t be able to fully grasp what is and isn’t happening, etc.

Less focus was made on her being one during the second season, although, I’m convinced that black wolf/coyote was either not real or a sign of the preternatural entering the show.

This episode, however, I fully believe certain things that happened only happened in the midst of June’s psychotic break. Even if the show’s creative staff and/or Elizabeth Moss all say, ‘No, everything happened as was presented,’ I will simply invoke death of the author.

Open to Heaven is a Place on Earth playing over the credits. Then, Natalie is shown on a hospital bed, and June is kneeling on the floor. Her VO shows the first signs of mental instability, and then, she looks directly at the camera.

I know Elizabeth Moss was a supporting character in Us, which I haven’t seen yet, but has she ever played a heroine or villain in a horror movie? If not, assuming she had an interest in doing so, I’d be down with her being in one, especially a psychological thriller.

Apparently, Natalie is brain-dead, although, June may not fully believe this. It’s established it’s been 32 days, and there are some medical professionals in the room. They’re utterly ignoring June, and one of them, I legitimately thought the show had managed to get Tom Hanks.

Gil Bellows’ picture on Wikipedia doesn’t show any resemblance to Tom Hanks, but here, he not only looks like Hanks, but his acting invokes thoughts of Hanks, too.

I used to watch Ally McBeal, but if I ever saw an episode with him in it, I don’t remember him and his character, and as far as I know, I haven’t seen him in anything else.

June’s uneasy at seeing girls in pink walking through the hallway outside, and time keeps shifting. It’s creepy every time she looks at the camera.

Wives and handmaids both come to pray for the baby, and Lydia does such kind, sympathetic things such as hitting a handmaid who comfortingly squeezes June’s wrist, and later, fussing at Janine for trying to cover her (Janine’s) infected eye-socket with her hair.

At one point, a little girl stands in the doorway, and June manages to smile. Then, however, she blinks, and the little girl is gone.

This is one trope that’s hit-or-miss for me. It annoyed me when American Gods did this, but there are instances when it can work.

She then sees little girls staring inside at her, and she insists they’re not real. She closes her eyes, and when she reopens them, it’s dark.

Her poor, bruised knees and atrophying legs make it hard and painful for her to stand. Managing, she goes to squeeze a tube attached to Natalie, and an alarm goes off.

I believe something happened to Natalie, and I believe, maybe, June was walking around, but I’m not sure I buy she did this. It’s not a question of her morality so much as I really believe there’d either be cameras or a guardian standing outside the window.

She gets back to her kneeling pillow before the medical professionals come in.

Later, she tries to comfort Janine when Lydia does the fussing, and Natalie’s machines go off. The handmaids start to leave, and coming in, Dr Not-Tom Hanks greets them with, “Excuse me, ladies,” before asking the other men, “What challenges has the lord given us this morning?”

On a podcast I was listening to, someone pointed out women in Gilead are mostly referred to as either girls or misogynist terms. ‘Ladies’ is a non-infantilising term of polite address.

Or well, it is when it’s not being used by men addressing other men with the intent to feminise, and thus, humiliate and degrade them.

Natalie has a seizure, and Lydia is disgusted with June’s comment about how they might get to watch Natalie shit herself. June begs to be allowed to go home, and Lydia does soften a little, but she nevertheless insists, no, June’s staying until the baby comes.

Omitting the paragraphs I typed in response, I will simply say I do not like Lydia.

Lydia leaves, and a medical man drops a scalpel in a waste-disposal container. He briefly glances at June, and I’m not sure if he really was just absently glancing over or if he was like, ‘Here. This is all I can do. Whatever you choose to do or not do is on you.’

Later, she’s on a cot in her nightgown, and getting up, she fishes through the container. Unfortunately, she gets a needle in the fingertip for her troubles. Once this is pulled out, however, she continues digging until she gets the scalpel.

Going over, she declares to Natalie, “You don’t fool me. I know you’re gone already.”

Then, Janine appears, and nope, I don’t believe this happened.

Moss and Madeline Brewer are so awesome in this scene, though.

Janine manages to talk June into not euthanising Natalie, and thus, terminating the pregnancy, and then, she’s a surrogate for countless Reddit posts about how selfish and self-centred June has become.

The problem with me declaring something the product of unreliable narration is that I often have no clue what might have happened instead. In this instance, I’m guessing June did stand over Natalie’s bed with the scalpel, and her hallucination of Janine was her struggling with her guilt, innate morality, and desperation.

In the day, Dr Not-Tom Hanks is talking to Natalie’s rapists about their soon-to-be kidnap victim. The little girls walk by, and the other characters acknowledge them. It turns out, the little girls are on their periods, and they’re here for pelvic exams. I think it’s to be inferred this happens every time they get their period until it’s established they’re physically healthy enough to carry a pregnancy to term, but I might be wrong.

June thinks about how it won’t be long until Hannah starts getting periods.

It’s shown June is holding the scalpel behind her back, and I can actually believe that she would both be idiotic enough to do this and lucky enough to not be caught, but seriously, June, put that under your kneeling pillow or, if you have one, a dress pocket or find some place in the room to stash it when no one’s around.

She considers who she wants to use the scalpel on, and SJ appears.

I’m leaning towards Nope here, but it’s not completely impossible her showing up happened.

June being all blatantly a horror character, however, and asking to speak to her privately, “It’s a secret,” and her coming over didn’t happen.

Even if SJ didn’t watch horror movies pre-Gilead, even if her taste in literature was nothing but non-fiction on Christian topics, she would have had some level of pop-culture osmosis. Never mind the fact she was a writer. Again, even if she only wrote non-fiction opinion pieces, being a writer means having fairly extensive knowledge of certain deeply, culturally ingrained tropes.

She tries to slice SJ, SJ easily manages to avoid this, and she ends up slicing herself.

If she did get cut, I don’t know if she truly attempted to commit suicide or if she accidentally hurt herself in the midst of a delusion, but unless it was Dr Not-Tom Hanks, she did not attempt to slice anyone with that scalpel.

As it is, in her delusion, SJ tells the doctor she (June) accidentally hurt herself.

Nope. I fully believe SJ would happily have June hung or stoned if she could manage it, and June just gave her the best opportunity she’d ever have.

Coming in, the doctor is gentle, and stitching her up, he makes it clear he’s not going to report her. It also turns out he knew her mother. He asks how long she’s been suicidal.

“Homicidal,” she corrects.

He points out that planning/attempting to kill someone when you know that the punishment will undoubtedly be death for you is suicidal.

She brings up her daughters, and he discusses his rationalisation for keeping Natalie’s body alive in order to bring the baby to term. “I honour the handmaid’s life- by saving her child. How will you honour your daughters?”

I want this whole conversation to be real, and I’m not sure she’d project all this on a person she doesn’t know at all, but it’s possible she did and that it isn’t.

During the night, Natalie starts coding, and the fact June was left alone with her despite Dr Not-Tom Hanks’ acknowledgement of her unstable mental state is evidence for the acknowledgement not actually happening.

She watches the surgery, and a tiny alien is removed from Natalie.

If this is realistic, then, I sincerely mean no disrespect towards the women who are forced to have their babies delivered so early or the babies themselves. Also, this isn’t me questioning whether the narration is reliable or not. It’s simply the fact that the prop used looks more like a tiny alien to me than what I, in my admittedly limited experience around human infants, expect a human infant to look like.

The tiny alien is somehow resuscitated, and it’s a boy.

She’s finally allowed to leave, and I do believe the rest of what happens is all accurate.

A pre-teen/teenage girl who largely resembles Eden notices her limping, and she sweetly asks if she can carry June’s suitcase. Agreeing, June thanks her. The girl asks if June having a baby is the reason for June’s presence, and hearing that June’s been visiting a sick friend, she assures June that prayer will help. Then, she mentions she’ll be married and have a baby someday soon, and June asks if this is what she wants.

Of course, the girl knows better than to give any answer but, “Of course. So much.” It’s implied, though, she either has doubts or outright doesn’t want this for herself.

However, she’s trapped.

It’s revealed her name is Rose when a wife, possibly her ‘adoptive’ mother, comes to call her away. She regretfully and apologetically sets the suitcase next to June.

Outside, the ridiculously named birthmobile rolls up, but June asks Lydia for permission to stay with Natalie until Natalie dies. Lydia agrees.

Back inside, in the only non-June scene, Lydia gives Janine a red eyepatch, and if Lydia was interacting with a baby or young child rather than a mentally compromised person who she helped psychologically and physically tear down, her cooing and smiling would be adorable.

As it is, I have issues with Janine’s character. Yes, she’s often adorable and sweet, and I feel protective over her. But I also mourn for the woman who threw an f-bomb at Lydia and was screaming while cuffed about how she’d sue the people who threw her in the back of a truck for all they’re worth. She wouldn’t be as sympathetic to audiences, but she’s fully gone. Dead. And it doesn’t seem as if many people care, because, look at the great person Lydia killing her produced.

There’s a tragedy, but it seems to me the tragedy to most people is more in the danger Janine continually faces than in the fact a woman’s personality was completely rewritten due to psychological and physical torture. Someone to coo over is preferable to most to watch than a 'crude', hot-blooded woman.

Back to June, she apologises to Natalie for the part she played in Natalie ending up here, and then, she declares she’s going to get kids out of Gilead.

Fin.


End file.
